Despite being a massive scaredy-cat my entire life, I still think horror is one of the best genres to adapt to virtual reality. The only thingscarier than being jump scaredon television is having that jump scare by the same creature delivered directly into your eyeballs.
One of the most recent offerings in this spooky sphere of gaming isAlien: Rogue Incursion, a VR title from Survios thatbrings you first-handinto helping iconicAlienseries regular Zula Hendricks (played by Andia Winslow) hunt down Xenomorphs in the name of exterminating them all. Along the way, she’ll be joined by her AI sidekick Davis 01, voiced by veteran voice actor Robbie Daymond.
He’s played a laundry list of characters across different genres, from subtle characters that are “canonically a little more grumpy” like Megumi Fushiguro in Jujutsu Kaisen to boisterous and lively heroes like Peter Parker in the 2017 Marvel Spider-Man cartoon, but as a long-time horror fan, Daymond is eager to jump into such a beloved series.
“Aliens is gangster!" he laughs. “If you haven’t seen the films, what are you doing? They’re iconic!”
Delivering An Immersive Horror Experience In Virtual Reality
“I’m glad to be justa little sliver of that universe,” Daymond tells me over Zoom ahead of the game’s launch. “I was so fascinated with Alien, Predator, The Thing – I really loved all the physical effects, suspense horror and sci-fi films of the late ‘70s to the early ‘90s, and I think that carried over with me.
“I was really familiar with the Alien universe, but then when I got the casting, I went back and did some research,” he smiles, telling me Alien was one of the first horror films he ever saw. “Now, I have all the Hendricks graphic novels in hard copy and I’ve read them all, so it was really cool that there was base material to jump off of, so I had a bit stronger of an idea of characterization when I walked in.”
Playing the android companion to a human on a mission to exterminate Xenomorphs in Alien: Rogue Incursion, Davis 01 is with Zula for most of the game, but Daymond was quick to highlight that sometimes, absence really does make the heart grow fonder. “When you’re in a game where it’s just one person against the world, if they don’t have anyone to talk to, it’s kind of lonely,” he tells me. “There are moments where Davis is very physically present early on, but through the majority of the game, depending on what you do and what happens, they’ll be side-by side. And when they’re separated, I feel like it will only increase the suspense for the player, because they will feel alone.”
Reiterating the notion that your decisions might impact your game’s progression, he adds, “There are a lot of pathways, even though the game is chapter-based, you should look for different paths. I think you should consider the different ways you’re able to play the game.” When I asked for advice he has for incoming players, he leaned into the mic, put a finger to his lips, and offered, “Shh, they’re hunting you.”
Despite his vast career experience, Daymond is always on the lookout for new opportunities, and mentions wanting to branch into wordy theatrical performances and/or boisterous comedies. VR is an extension of that desire for new styles, and he says the approach is different to how he’d play a character you see on-screen, telling me it requires “a level of intimacy” to execute.
“You’re guaranteed to be seeing things through the eyes of the player almost always in VR,” he says. “For me, the whole process felt a little bit more cinematic. It felt like the intimate moments were more important, because anytime you’re over comms, it’s very conversational, and I like that kind of stuff.”
I ask if he’s much of a VR guy himself, but Daymond laughs, telling me he’s dabbled but doesn’t feel quite able to play too much at present. “It’s so fun, but my IRL is pretty much an adventure game right now. I have a three-year old and a six-year old, and I can’t imagine myself strapped into a VR while they’re like, ‘Daddy, we’re hungry,’ and I’m like, ‘Quiet, I’m playing Beat Saber!’”
How Human Is Too Human For AI?
This very human factor in not being as big a VR expert as he’d like leads us to the difference between playing human and non-human characters. “It’s a really cool concept: what level of emotion is connected to the idea of AI, how self-aware are we, and what’s real and what’s not?”
He repeats multiple times in our interview about how passionate the team on the project was, how seamless Andia Winslow’s work as Zula made it for him to record Davis 01’s lines, but collaborative effort to make this non-human character feel real was critical to both him andthe team at Survios. “It was a constant conversation with the writing team and the director like, ‘Is thistoohuman?’ And very often, the answer was, ‘No, I think we can go there in these quiet moments so that it feels real.’ And I think, to Davis 01, it is.”
Alien: Rogue Incursion launched for PlayStation VR2 and Steam VR on December 19, with an upcoming launch on Meta Quest 3 on June 28, 2025.
